Team COMBAT
by The Almighty Afroduck
Summary: Upon arrival, six agents of a once potentially dangerous organization known as The Freelancer Program arrive at the world of Remnant to stay. Having been rejuvenated into younger versions of themselves, these six change the world with ancient alien technology they earned before their stay. Now living in the new world, the six swear to start anew and help others by becoming Hunters.


**Author's Notes: Hello everyone! For those of you who know me from my other story, I welcome you to a different journey! For those of you who don't, I am the Almighty Afroduck, the one and absolutely greatest duck in all of reality. Introductions aside, I came here with the idea of what it would be to bring a whole team of Freelancers to the RWBY universe! An idea I'd like to flesh out in the hopes of having a decent amount of reviews (considering 'React, Watch, Believe, Yikes!' has so many reviews, I believe this to be a land of opportunity). Now, as was said in the description, the team will consist of six ex-Freelancers (technically five with the addition of a new one (not OC)) post Season 10. Seasons 11 and 12 will have nothing to do with this story, and as a manner of fact, these six characters and their equipments, weapons, etc, will be the only thing seen from the RvB universe. Now, pairings for these RvB have already been chosen by yours truly, but I don't doubt that you guys will know immediately who's hooked up with who (RvB wise). Without further ado, enjoy!**

**The Reunion**

"Testing. Testing. Ok, it's on. This is my first video log. I am the memory fragment Epsilon of the AI Alpha based on Dr. Leonard Church and I've just finished seeing said man with ex-Agent Carolina of the now terminated Project Freelancer. With the help of ex-Agent Washington of the same notorious program, and several simulation troopers going by the names of Edmund Sarge, Lavernius Tucker, Michael J. Caboose, Richard Simmons, Dexter Grif, and Franklin Delano Donut, we've found the Director and we've finished what's left of the Project. There's transport on its way here, the base and hiding location where Dr. Church has been residing in for the past few months, to take us all for a live ceremony for being capable of taking down one of the UNSC's greatest threats and fears.

"I checked the data held in the monitors and archives at the outpost and came across a finished program capable of rendering any AI or AI Fragment, in my case, metastability. The first thing I did was download it for myself, to see if I can finally live out a good, long life, and found it to be successful. Once I had that sorted out, I made sure to send it to UNSC Command in the name of my friends, not including me, Washington or Carolina. Thanks to me, they are now going to be relocated to the planet Reach, which is going through reconstruction, to live in a large mansion with some rich fucking bank accounts to do whatever the hell they want for the rest of their days. I guess it's my way of thanking them that for all the shit I've gone through, they've had my back when it mattered the most.

"I've already sent them a message telling them that I've found myself a body and armor in the base, which, by the way, is true, and that I'd be with Wash and Carolina to help them hunt down anyone who still has Freelancer technology or a lust for power or blood. Or both. Either ways, I sent my goodbyes to them. For some it was more emotional, like Caboose and Donut, for others it was hard but not unbearable, like Tucker, Grif and Simmons, and Sarge managed to respect the fact that I'm leaving, and not in a bad way, mind you. But as of now, with my body made of flesh and bone which I can still jump out of and go 'AI Mode' as I like to call it, I am going to part ways with the Reds and Blues of Blood Gulch to go with Wash and Carolina and see what kind of weird shit I am going to get myself into.

"This brings me to the last thing I'd like to put into my recording. As of now, I will be going by the alias Agent Alaska to hide my name and identity to make sure to not have my old friends wrapped up in the same crazy shithole I'm about to get myself into. Hand to hand combat, general close quarters combat and sniper rifle training programs are being downloaded into my AI self so I can use them while hunting down any targets with those sets of skills. They're going to take numerous weeks to finish downloading, and I'll have to do a lot of practice with Carolina and Washington to keep up with them. Cheating? Probably, but after remembering what it was like to be whole as Alpha and have been torn apart fragment by fragment, I can honestly say I don't give so much as a single fuck. Agent Alaska, signing off." With that, Leonard Church's memory fragment turned off the audio log and looked to his left to find the source of a pair of armored footsteps.

"Alaska, you ready?" David 'Washington' Marshall asked his friend. "Yeah, I'll be with you in a minute." With that, David left. Leonard returned to his body, grabbed his sniper rifle, and followed the ex-freelancer through the base and back to where Carolina was waiting by a monitor. "What are you doing?" Leonard asked, looking at her typing as numerous words appeared on a black screen. "Changing my name on my profile." "Why?" "It wouldn't be either credible or safe for me to be known as the daughter of one of the smartest spooks that ever existed and happened to create one of the most potentially dangerous programs since the creation of the latest generation of SPARTAN III's." "But you were part of the team that helped take the Director down!" "And Brutus killed his uncle because he was a threat to his position in the still powerful Senate, my case could be seen similarly. And why do _you_ go by the codename 'Agent Alaska'?" "I see your point."

With that, Leonard decided to stop questioning the now annoyed Carolina, so David took the opportunity to ask her a more harmless question. "What's your new name now?" "Adriana Atreus." "Why Adriana?" "Because it was my real name _long_ before my codename 'Carolina' was." "Oh. Ok." With that, the two stayed silent as they watched her finish typing a few more words and close everything without leaving evidence. Without hesitation, she turned around with a grin and said "Let's go hunting, boys." At that, David chuckled before responding, "You got it, boss." Leonard just nodded before following her to a landing site where a pelican lent by the UNSC for their help was waiting. Adriana went to the pilot's seat while David and Leonard sat behind her in two copilot seats. The dropship started up and flew off with the three agents inside.

**-SEVERAL MONTHS LATER-**

In the dark of the night, on top of a snowy mountain at a tundra on the planet Terra Nova, Leonard 'Alaska' Church looked through the scope in his sniper rifle at the valley between several mountains, one of which he was on, and saw the entrance on one of the mountains' walls at the bottom to an underground base with three clad black armored mercenaries standing outside. Even with the loud, frozen storm raging on for what had been hours, he heard Adriana's voice through his helmet's radio ask "Are they here?" He knew she was talking about The Minotaurs, a band of mercenaries specialized in hoarding technology, money and resources through only the most brutal means. It was common to see an officer packed with a Gravity Hammer and Spike Grenades stolen from the remains of the Human-Covenant War. Over the past couple of months, Leonard and his two sibling-like companions managed to cripple the mercs through stealthy missions, destroying their bases, capturing valuable objectives and sabotaging major operations. The three had grown very close together after coming out alive out of many suicidal missions, and living traveling with nothing but their armor, a few pair of clothes, their pelican and their one secret base erased any grudges they might ever had had against one another. Thinking of that put a small smile on his face before remembering the question. "Yeah, they're here alright." "Perfect, take them out quickly. Wash, hide the bodies before anyone notices." And with that the radio went silent.

Leonard became serious once again and aimed for the head of one of the guards. Once he saw the bull's-eye stay on the same spot as the head, he took a deep breath before firing. The silenced bullet went perfectly between the mercenary's eyes, and his body fell to the ground without a problem. The next two fell in no less than three seconds, giving them no time to react and much less to warn the others in the base. Still looking through his scope, he saw David come out of his hiding place in a small hole in the ground and dispose of the bodies in the same spot. The storm helped him in hiding and covering the blood-red snow on the ground. Leonard finally put his sniper rifle on his back, looked below, and calculated a good seven hundred sixty-three meters of distance between him and the ground. He got up from his position and jumped in such a way that he could slide all the way down with as much speed as possible. He made it to the ground, most of the momentum he gained on the way down he used to slide on the side of the mountain, and ran about a hundred more meters before catching up with David.

"Nice one, Alaska. Bastards never saw what hit them." "What can I say, Wash? I live for this shit. Now where's Carolina?" As if on cue, a teal mist blew some snow in the air out of the way before a figure appeared in front of them. "Right here. Let's go, we don't to keep our hosts waiting, now do we?" Adriana 'Carolina' Atreus asked mischievously. At this point, both men could tell that she was grinning even behind her ever-scowling helmet. "Damn right, I'll take point from here on out." David and Adriana were used to being led by Leonard on several occasions, this time was no different than the others. "Got it." They both replied.

A couple of modified charges set up by David were attached to the door, and blew it open with barely a noise. Either ways, no one was there to see it happen. Leonard came in first, sniper back in hand, aiming wherever an enemy may come out of before giving the others the go-ahead to enter. Once all were in, Leonard muttered, "Wash", before David threw his right fist to the ground and activated a miniature EMP to disable any cameras or motion trackers that may be in the room. For a second, Leonard remembered how his AI 'self' was downloaded into a centimeter long chip, and had it operated into his body's brain with the help of Adriana and David, that way if he was present during the blast of an EMP in his AI form, he would be returned to his body with the minor side effect of being knocked out. If the EMP was activated while he was inside his body, it would have no effect on him, but if he was shot in a major organ or vital part of his body and didn't receive any medical attention, he would die like anyone else. With that, Leonard led the team of three through light gray, metallic hallway. It was thick and had many doors to the side, making it perfect for an ambush from the mercenaries. The place was familiar thanks to the lack of originality of the Minotaurs and their love of somewhat systematic and basic design for bases. So far, no one was alerted by the fact that they were here. It seemed like they were going to storm, loot and destroy yet another base without a problem, so the three Agents assumed so. They were as wrong as they could get.

The three came up to a large double door, and stood quietly by its sides. With their helmets against the wall, they heard the tired voices of over twenty mercenaries. Leonard managed to come to the conclusion that at least four of them were officers given by the fact that he heard around the same number of different voices giving orders with enough arrogance to put the late Agent South Dakota to shame. Leonard gave the other two the signal to ready their weapons. He analyzed David as he pulled out his own battle rifle, it was hard to grow accustomed to see the new change in his armor. After one of the toughest missions the three had gone to went south as it turned out to be a trap and nearly killed the greatly feared Agent Washington, they had to retreat and give David medical attention. Fortunately he was saved, but his armor was not. When he woke up form his coma and heard this, he figured he could order his own custom armor. It would take a millionaire to be able to buy a set of armor like the ones used by the three, but ten months of looting rich terrorist bases gave them those privileges. While he kept the same coloring, his helmet was RECON, his shoulder plates were EOD, and his chest piece was CQB. David was happy for the change, mainly because he had a better place where to keep his knife, and his helmet came with better features for the rifleman he was.

Leonard also thought of the double standard he was applying to his companion. After a mission where the three had hunted down the leader's right hand man, his chest plate was burnt, his shoulder plates were blown off, and his helmet's visor was cracked to the point where he could barely see. Nevertheless, he pulled through and killed the pyromaniac of a terrorist. He too had to order a new set of armor, thankfully covered by the psychotic mercenary's many rich banking accounts. Finding himself to enjoy stealth in hunting plus swiftness and fluidity in martial arts led him to buy the full set of HAYABUSA armor in cobalt, including the katana. He figured one more weapon would only add in benefits, not create downsides. To make sure he wouldn't waste the fine blade, he downloaded the samurai swordsman training program to himself so that he could learn the art and use of the weapon. He was happy to know that in two months he already learned a good eighty percent, rendering him a damn good samurai.

Leonard snapped out of his small trance and went over to the door to type in a few stolen codes from the corpses from before and opened it. As soon as he did, he quickly aimed his sniper rifle at one of the confused officers and hit one of his spike grenades. When it did, it immediately killed said officer and three other mercs standing nearby. The shock of the others gave a chance to Adriana and David to roll into the scene and start shooting their signature weapons. David shot five soldiers in the head and wounded another officer while Adriana used her plasma rifles to melt the armor of seven soldiers, killing three and injuring four. A few more well placed shots and the skills of the three Freelancers led them to kill twenty-seven troopers in the room, five of them being officers. When the three thought it to be all clear, they lowered their guns, still in hand, and analyzed the room. There were various monitors, computers, trackers, maps with locations and many other things behind a glass door at the end of the very large, long and wide metallic hall. The three realized that unlike the other bases they would usually invade, this one was where only the highest ranking leaders and generals of the Minotaurs would come to form plans. After previous experience with only two other types of outposts like this, they knew they found a gold mine. The other two places held high amounts of sellable tech and access to the big bosses' accounts. But the three couldn't shake off the feeling like something was wrong, like something was _watching_ them. Leonard looked around and fondled the trigger of his sniper rifle, knowing that doing so, he could at least react quickly enough for whatever may be hiding in the base.

"Hey boss." "Yeah, Wash?" "Something doesn't feel right." "You feel it too, Alaska?" "I'd be lying if I said I didn't." "Keep your guard up, a trap isn't something far from expected from a place as important as this." After the silent talk, the three moved forward, Adriana taking the lead once again and the other two watching and occasionally turning around to check that no enemies would flank them. The tension was thick in the air, and grew ever more so as the three walked closer and closer to the room at the end of the hall. They were only a few meters away when the main lights went out, replaced by dim, red ones, and a large metal gate closed to protect the planning room. The three turned around with their guns ready expecting a platoon. No such thing came. Instead, insane laughter broke through the speakers on top of the hall. After the man's voice finished it's grotesque version of what may be considered a laugh, it spoke to them saying, "I must say, Agents, I didn't expect your arrival to be so soon here. That is why I am thankful that I made the necessary preparations to make sure all fell according to plan."

"You must be The Head, the leader of the Minotaurs, I assume." David said to the voice.

"Quite right, and you must be 'Washington, The Undead Prick'." The voice retorted. David scowled behind his helmet due to his frustration at the nickname he earned amongst the criminals. When the group failed to kill David, they decided to turn his 'victorious return from the dead' as comedy material.

"I'm going to assume your little introduction is supposed to stall us from finding you here." Adriana growled. At this, the Head laughed. "Like I said before, I already made the preparations necessary, which includes my leave and this trap, so I guess 'Carolina, The Bitch in Teal' is wrong to assume so."

It angered her that they might have had a chance at catching the man and instead, they lost him. Leonard then used his emotionless voice which he only took for missions for his next words, "So today we won't meet, but if I were you, I'd count my days. One way or another we will find you, and we _will_ kill you." "Oooh, you frighten me so. If you are 'Alaska, The Cold-Hearted Asshole', then I believe I've met the whole crew. By the way, I have been _dying_ of excitement to meet you all." "You should be. It's not every day that you get a round of bullets into your ass."

Once again, The Head laughed, and this time, however, a spot in the ceiling opened to lower a television to reveal the face of the man in charge of the Minotaurs. His appearance was that of a man in his mid-forties with very long, orange hair pulled back to show one green eye with long eyelashes and a bit of shade under it, and an empty socket where the other one should have been. A plain nose accompanied his face, and as a final touch, a cruel smile completed the look. This brought a rare chuckle from Leonard, "I see you take joy in comedy, and so do your men. I wonder what they make of _you_, Cyclops."

His quick wits managed to piss off the Head, getting the man to finally straighten up and get serious. A frown came across the redhead's face, and managed to calm his nerves before speaking again, "Base after base, outpost after outpost, communications center after communications center, all of them are _fucking destroyed_ as soon as _you three_ find them. Hell, I've sent platoons of my dumbest goons, then multiple teams of good officers, hell, I got to the point of sending my _right hand man_, which is not easily replaceable mind you, and you've killed _every fucking ONE OF THEM!_ It took me days, weeks, even _months_, to find out how to get rid of you three for good, and it wasn't until recently that I found exactly how." Through the speech, The Head was shown to be fuming in anger, but later retained his rage and even managed a smile. That worried the Agents.

"Right, because if you keep trying hard enough, _all_ your dreams and wishes will come true." David spat. "But of course! If it weren't so, how would it be that I came to lead one of the most notorious terrorist groups since the ever-feared Project Freelancer? Hold that thought. I'd rather you _not _tell me. I think just by speaking to you, I'm already catching your severe case of cynical assholeism. But would you still be willing to hear what I have in store for you?" The Head pleaded. Leonard shook his head before looking at the madman again. "Try me. _Surprise_ me."

Yet again, The Head howled in laughter. This time however, it was neither a cruel nor mocking laugh that came out of his mouth, but a rather genuine laugh. After the redhead wiped a tear from his left eye, his _only eye_, he faced them again, "Oh, Alaska. Never did I think that you would be the cause of that! I should probably thank you, I haven't had a fit like that in months." "Get to the point." Still smiling, he said, "Fair enough, I'll tell you what I did. I decided that the proper formula to fight fire, is to fight _with_ fire." The three Agents were confused by the statement, until a force field separated the further half of the long hallway containing Adriana, David and Leonard, from the other half containing the door from which they came to the room from. The three nearly dropped their weapons when they saw two similarly armored soldiers walking through it. One of them had an EOD helmet, SCOUT shoulder plates, and an EOD chest piece, colored brown with white trims, while the other had an EVA helmet, SECURITY shoulder plates, and an EVA chest piece, colored beige with silver trims.

"I believe you three fellow Freelancers are familiar with Agents Connecticut and New York, no?" "What the _hell_ did you do to them?!" It was unusual to hear the teal armored woman surprised and angered at the same time, and not a particularly good thing. But it was no surprise to see her in such a state after watching her ex-lover stand there against his will. Leonard looked at David to see him in a similar position, paralyzed and looking straight at CT. "Well, if you really must know, then I better tell you the whole story! Saves questions later on, like 'how did you find them' or 'how did you do that' or some other shit like that. One of my best infiltration units found data files of Project Freelancer's dropouts to see if there were any survivors I could take. Turns out, while Agent Washington 'Blew up his armor', I went through some more digging and found the odd coincidence that Agent New York's healing unit had been put in use shortly after he was shot by the late Agent Wyoming, and was only put in a coma. Even later so, his AI fragment Delta managed to call an ambulance after Agent Texas left, and as soon as it arrived, the medics took the armor off to have an easier time at saving the man. AI fragment broke protocol by lying to Agent Washington by stating that Agent New York was dead in order to give him time to recover and live out a different life. It wasn't hard to search around the city for a brand new cop who managed to become the Head of Deputies within only a couple of years. Apparently, the dumbass was _so_ 'honorable' that he confessed to have stolen from others before he became a cop and used most of his savings to pay all his victims back. The tale was so inspiring I almost started to _cry_. His armor however, was lost thanks to Washington's 'commitment', and I had to buy different pieces that could be compatible with one another in order to replace the armor that he lost. Since it's so different, I figured the same coloring would help you recognize him and not confuse him for some other beefed up jockey." The three had been looking at the differently armored New York that was standing about thirty meters away from them, with pity to see him there, of all places.

"As for our lovely Agent Connecticut, she went through a fate quite similar to Agent New York's. After being critically wounded by Agent Texas, the Insurrectionist Leader had managed to drag her to an escape pod. While the two had a very professional boss-to-worker relationship, he dragged her to make sure he didn't loose the armor and the data. Records show that if he didn't pity the poor bitch so much, he would have finished her then and there. But instead, as a token of appreciation, he used the pod's first aid kit on her, took her armor to use it himself and sent her to the nearest hospital as soon as they landed. So while she laid comatose in a hospital bed after months for bleeding so much, the Insurrectionist Leader had a fight with the famous Reds and Blues of Blood Gulch. Long story short, it ended on some strange alien orb floating up to him and shooting him with a laser." Leonard remembered that with a smile, but then took it off when the Head started talking again, "The Insurrectionist Leader was fried within his armor, but the armor itself didn't take so much damage. Thankfully, Agent Connecticut was waking up, so finding her old armor with the help of 'The Bitch in Teal' and 'The Undead Prick', it was easy to retrieve said set of armor, dispose of the body and renew it, and with the old records of her from Project Freelancer, I was able to find her.

"Now I know what you're thinking, 'how did you get them to work for you' or 'why would they agree to be here'. The answer is real simple. They don't work for me like others do because they never technically agreed to be here. After finding them both and knocking them out, I planted small chips inside their brains that would take away any and all will power they may have tried to use against me. In other words, they're my slaves _now_. But, after finding enough footage to see Agent Washington's EMP ability, I figured they wouldn't last long unless I did some upgrades and took drastic measures. Any EMP set upon them will activate a trigger within the chip that will send a high voltage burst of electricity which will kill them. And I know that none of you three would be able to kill your friends." The Head finished the sentence with a very cruel smile. David looked directly at him and said, "When I find you, I'm going to make sure you don't have_ any_ eyes to look at _everything_ I have in store for _you_." "HA! I'd like to see that happen!" "Believe me, five minutes in and you'll be begging for death." "Sure I will. Wait! Before I deactivate this force field, I really should tell you that the two Agents in front of you can't be knocked out. Another perk of having their chips upgraded. And Agent New York has been returned his healing unit that was stolen from you, Washington. I hope you feel proud of yourself." David closed his left fist and tightened his other hand around his rifle at that. After having most of his old armor destroyed, he lost the healing unit he gained from York's armor. He managed to keep and repair his old EMP unit, but he never stopped mentally berating himself for having have lost something so valuable on enemy territory. The Head's sly remark only made it worse.

The television started returning to its hole above it again, but not before The Head yelled, "Now let the match BEGIN!" As soon as the hole in the ceiling closed, the force field disappeared, and Agent York prepared his shotgun while Agent Connecticut prepared her pistol and took out her knife. David, Adriana and Leonard also prepared their weapons. They knew the whole 'I believe in you' or 'you can fight it' was as valuable as a pile of horseshit at this point. Leonard was the first to make a move as he attempted shoot York's shotgun out of his hand, but York quickly rolled to the ground and ran towards the three. CT was in a similar state as she raised her gun and started shooting at the group, all of which dodged and separated, and ran to them as well.

Catching David alone, York charged full speed at the man and rammed him to the hallway's left wall. David dropped his battle rifle and elbowed York in the back, managing to get him off, kicked the shotgun from his hand and then hit him with an uppercut that sent him tumbling back. The two grabbed their pistols and shot at each other from a distance, but no bullet hit either, as they were far too quick for one another. The only difference being that David was aiming to immobilize him while York went for the kill. As soon as both ran out of bullets, the ex-Freelancer threw his pistol to the side, ran faster than York could reload and kicked the pistol to where the other fallen weapons slid off to. This earned him three punches to the stomach, an elbow to his head and a kick that fractured a few ribs on his right, but David stood his ground and grabbed York's right leg when he attempted another kick, and used the opportunity to muster all the strength he had delivered it in a punch to York's helmet. His punch sent York to the ground. At first David thought he had beaten the agent who, at one point, was ranked second on the Freelancer Leaderboard, but it was when he remembered the chip's abilities and the fact that York took back his healing unit did he start prepping for combat again.

Adriana and Leonard weren't doing as well either. Connecticut's play of smoke and mirrors was taking a serious toll on the two. Were it not for the fact that it was a priority for the two to take CT alive in order to be able to remove the chip from her brain and get her back, they would have already won. But, it was exactly the opposite. The fact that both of Adriana's plasma rifles were ruined and Leonard's sniper rifle was broken in half only made the situation worse. Fortunately for them, Adriana was able to knock the pistol from her hands near the beginning of the battle. The downside was that she _only_ knocked away the pistol. And that wasn't Connecticut's true strength in battle. CT's knife had already made several scratches on both of their armors, and she was aiming for _much_ more than that. Thankfully, Carolina had her speed, and Church had his katana. It was all a battle of equals, blade to blade, fist to fist, so the only things that mattered were persistence and stamina. It was cruel to remember that York and CT's chips rendered them invulnerable to being knocked out, and York could regenerate his and CT'S health.

After David received a serious blow to his face that near knocked him unconscious and Adriana failed to block one of CT's kicks and fell back, Leonard swiped at CT's ankles, making her fall, and went to York and barely stabbed at his lower back to hit the nerves and cripple the man momentarily. He felt guilty when he heard their screams, but he would rather hear that than see either dead. After remembering everything, not just from the Alpha's or the Director's lives, but the lives of ALL the fragments, he felt himself close to York through Delta's memories, and after hearing of the relationship David had with CT, he would be caught dead before killing her. Satisfied with his work, he ran to his recovering teammates. "Ok, there's no way in hell that we can keep doing this."

"How the hell are we supposed to keep up with them?" David asked in an exhausted fashion. "We can't, not only because we don't have a healing unit, but also because we're wasting time The Head could be using to make new missions and operations!" Leonard knew that Adriana was right, and started to think. Then the idea hit him. "I think there's a way for me to deal with the chip." "How so?" The two inquired. "I may be able to go AI Mode, go to one of them and download the program into myself. When that's done, David can activate the EMP and knock me out temporarily. It would kill the program and return whoever I invade back to normal. I would need time for my consciousness to return, though." The two looked at each other and nodded. "If it's our best shot, let's do it." Adriana remarked. "Alaska, I think it'd be best if you take on York first, that way CT can get exhausted without getting an energy refill." Before David, Alaska's body dropped and an exact copy in a more ghostly form stood above the body. "Alright, let's do this."

While the three planned out their next moves, York had nearly worn out his healing unit, but managed to gain his legs back. He went over the body of an injured CT and activated his healing unit again. Once he did, he extended his hand to her and helped her up. The two started running towards the three, when a strange white mist hit York and stopped him in mid run. He got on his knees and grabbed his helmet from the sides and shook his head with all his might, thinking that might shake off whatever got into him. From the corner of his eyes he saw CT having a hard time in knife to knife combat with David, and Adriana was only adding to the pressure, but in a flash, whatever was controlling him like a puppet disappeared. He slowly got up and looked around. He voiced his first free thought he had in around two weeks. "Holy shit." But when he looked to see the armored 'Agent Alaska' getting up to grab his katana and charge not at CT, but at his two allies, he used all the strength and speed in his legs to ram into he man. They both fell a considerable distance from each other, giving David exactly what he needed to run to where 'Alaska' was starting to get up from, and used a very small EMP, so small in fact, that it only affected 'Alaska' and not York, which was surprising giving that only three and a half meters separated the two. That knocked the cobalt armored man cold. David walked up to York and extended his arm, "Need a hand?" York chuckled and responded, "Only if it doesn't end up sucker punching my face." They both chuckled at that until they snapped into realization that Adriana was fending off CT on her own. "CAROLINA!" York yelled as he ran and jumped on CT, making her drop her knife and fall on the ground.

Adriana got out of her defensive stance in surprise of what happened, and looked at the armored figure of David rushing over to where CT was laying and punching York, who was on top of her. He grabbed her arms and pinned them to the ground while York stood up and pinned her legs. Without a word, she ran over to where Leonard's body was, and shook him until he came to his senses. He looked over at her a bit weakly and asked, "Did it work?" The redhead nodded and watched as the body became lifeless again and a ghostly figure ran over to where CT was pinned down. Soon she stopped fighting, both Freelancers let go of her, and David ran after Leonard's AI Form. When the AI returned to his body to try to get up and fight again, he was stopped midway by the grey armored agent's EMP. Once again, Alaska lay cold on the ground. The exhausted Agents New York and Connecticut walked over to where the other even more exhausted Agents were.

For a second, the four were standing in a small circle, both sides wary of the other. Uncomfortable silence reigned, none of the four knew where to start. It stayed that way for a few more seconds until they all turned towards the source of a groan. Leonard shook his head before getting up again and asking, "what did I miss?" The other four were still silent at that before David just shook his head. Leonard could tell they were all in shock and he wasn't really in the mood to be in the shit storm that would soon awake. "Right. Pass me some explosives. It's time to blow that damn metal gate open to get the spoils and plans in there while you guys catch up." David handed him a few of his many extra C4s and Leonard left the four again while secretly hacking into his friends' helmets to tune in to the conversation to see just how long their awkward silence lasted, and if his presence helped as an icebreaker.

He was placing the second C4 on the other end of the metal gate, and he still didn't hear a word. "Icebreaker _my ass_." Leonard muttered. But a few seconds afterwards, it was York who started it with a cough, "Well,_ it's been a while_, hasn't it?" That was all that was needed for all hell to break loose. "It's been years, York, _years_, and the _only_ thing you could think of saying is 'IT'S BEEN A WHILE'?!" Adriana screamed at her ex-lover. She was about to say everything that she felt at the moment, but was instead interrupted by David. " Why, CT, why?! Goddamn it, WHY couldn't you leave a DAMN WARNING or at least a FUCKING MESSAGE THAT YOU WOULD LEAVE?! WHY?!" "Look, I wanted to bring you with me, I _really_ did! I kept trying to get you to realize that The Director was worse than we assumed! Hell, even when I was controlled, I read the news of 'The team that brought the end of Project Freelancer'!"

"AND YOUR FIRST IDEA WAS TO JOIN THE INSURRECTIONISTS?!" "YES, WASH, IT WAS! I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO, I WAS SURE THE UNSC WOULD HAVE US _ALL_ SENT TO JAIL IF WE WERE _LUCKY_, AND THE INSURRECTIONISTS OFFERED ME A CHANCE TO WIPE MY NAME, AND I TOOK IT! EVEN IF IT MEANT I HAD TO BECOME ONE!" Adriana and York had been tensely looking at each other, and both about to say everything they had had on their minds for the last few years, but watching their close friends nearly tear each other apart silenced them completely.

"SO YOU HAVE _NO_ REGRETS THAT YOU TURNED YOUR BACK ON US ALL?!"

"OF COURSE I DO! EVERY DAY, I REGRET NOT BEING ABLE TO BE WITH YOU AGAIN, TO NOT HEAR YORK'S WITTY COMMENTS, TO NOT FOLLOW CAROLINA INTO BATTLE, OR TO NOT ASK NORTH FOR SOME HELP OR ADVICE! HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT!"

"HOW DARE _YOU_ BETRAY US ALL! HELL, I LOVED YOU BACK THEN, AND I STILL DO NOW! I WOULD _NEVER_ HAVE LEFT YOU OR ANY OF MY OTHER CLOSE FRIENDS WITHOUT _AT LEAST_ A GOODBYE! WITHOUT AN EXPLENATION! WITHOUT ASKING FOR HELP! WITHOUT MAKING SURE THAT THEY KNOW THAT I WOULD BE THERE FOR THEM IF THEY REALLY NEEDED ME!_ YOU BROKE MY HEART_, ANGELA, _AND THEN YOU TOOK A SHIT ON MY SOUL!_"

At this point, both were panting from exhaustion. David wanted to just drop on his knees and scream, and Angela was on the verge of tears. Whatever more they might have had to say was interrupted by an explosion at the end of the hall. They all turned to the source and found the metal gate in pieces on the floor and the 'Agent Alaska' returning to them. York finally spoke up again, "Ok, before anything else happens, who the hell is this guy?!"

Leonard didn't really feel like stalling any longer. He looked at David before saying, "activate a remote EMP for any cameras in this room." David was a bit in shock after the whole 'reunion', for lack of better words, but did as he was told. A blue light emitted from the grey armored agent's body, and was soon seen in the corners of the hallway. Leonard knew that there no longer was harm in what he was about to do. The four looked as the man placed his hands under his helmet and with the touch of a few buttons, he took it off. This time, York nearly fell and Angela dropped he knife at the sight in front of them. Under the helmet was what looked like a younger version of The Director himself.

"Before you start asking if I'm related to the Director in any way, the answer is yes and no. Yes and no mainly because I'm the AI Epsilon based on the Alpha, a somewhat sane copy of the Director and this body is a deviation of what the Director's body really was. Any questions?" The two just looked at him. Then York asked, "Is it safe to assume you're _not_ one of the evil fragments like Omega?"

"Yeah. I'm also metastable, so there's no chance for me to suffer from rampancy."

"What fragment are you?" Angela asked. "Memory fragment, but because I'm the memories of the Director, the Alpha and the other fragments, I kind of became a full AI."

"You have the memories of _all _the fragments?" Leonard looked at York as he asked this and he understood what he was getting at. With a bit of concentration, a green mist came out of both his armor and his body while his voice changed a bit. "Yes, Jonathan. While I both am and am not Delta, I remember you well. Probably the most important reason why I didn't want to be the one to fight you." Jonathan looked at Leonard longingly as he remembered all the times he and his old partner stuck their necks out for each other. Leonard smiled at him and returned to normal.

He then looked at Angela, guessing about what she was going to ask next. "Did the Director torture you and the other fragments, including the Alpha?" He guessed right.

"Only the Alpha. Hell, that was how we were created. When he tortured the Alpha for a long enough period of time, he caused him to isolate one emotion or piece of him completely, and copied said part to create a fragment. In a way, this tormented most of ourselves in our existences. But I'm fine now, in case you were wondering." They both nodded, still dumbfounded by the man. Leonard looked around and figured he had enough of the place. He spoke as he put his helmet back on, "Come on, all of you. Let's loot this place, find any plans for operations in the data files, head back to the base and finish playing twenty questions there. I'm pretty sure both of you are going to want to tag along." The two nodded lightheadedly, picked up their weapons and started following along. Adriana and David had been staring for a while, David now somewhat recovered, and followed silently their cobalt armored friend.

Leonard was the first to enter the room, the other four closely behind. He noticed that most consoles were on. The Head had been here recently. It made him smile that the leader of the Minotaurs was so damn arrogant that he presumed that Jonathan and Angela were going to be victorious over the three of them. Normally this wouldn't make him happy, but considering the fact that no files of importance were erased or the fact that he didn't even need to hack to get into this base's _high_ budget accounts, it was quite the contrary. He took a chip from inside the back of his helmet and placed it in the consoles. It, with the help of a virus program he created, transferred all the data and money to the chip. He placed it again at the back of his head, looked to the others and said, "Let's get the hell out of here."

The four nodded, none in the mood to get into another tiresome argument and instead eager to leave the damn place. Running back to the snowy terrain, they climbed the not so inclined mountain to find at its top a Pelican waiting for them. After pressing a ten-digit code at the side of the entrance, the back end opened, allowing them through. He walked, walking and sitting above on the copilot's seat, where Adriana began to start up the engines. Unlike the usual endings to their average missions, David chose to sit down near the other two exhausted ex-Freelancers.

Leonard looked at his screen, connecting himself with their outpost's database. He quickly typed the two new entries it would be receiving, marking Jonathan 'New York' Osborne and Angela 'Connecticut' Thorne as a new part of their squad. Finishing verifying, he looked up from his screen and down to Adriana. "Hey, Adri."

"Yeah, Leo?" She responded, looking back for a second.

"Let's go home." And with that, the Pelican took off.

**Author's Notes: Well, I hope you guys have enjoyed reading this as much as I have had writing it. Now, something that I have to tell you guys before you stop and wait for the next chapter is the fact that I'll be taking long periods of time to update this story. This is mainly because I have a complete priority over my other story (War, Peace, and other Galactic Customs). This is more of a hobby and while I do enjoy the idea of this, this situation is one that I've wanted to avoid completely (juggle two or more stories) with just how slowly I write. While I hope you've enjoyed this, I do ask for your patience for when the next chapter will come. Well, goodbye to you all, hopefully I will be able to update this in the shortest amount of time that I can, and all constructive critics and reviews are welcome.**

**The Almighty Afroduck,**

**All Hail**


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